Strength in Weakness
by Barefootedfreedom
Summary: The end of Return of the Jedi from Darth Vader's point of view.


**Strength in Weakness**

Pain. Bone searing pain.

Darth Vader blinked, trying to steady his reeling vision as he fell against the rail. Sizzling, the nerves in his robotic arm spat sparks from the stump of his severed wrist. As the pain receded, his eyes refocused on the imposing figure standing above him.

Luke.

His son.

The Jedi's face was unreadable, carved in stone. He did not move as the Sith Lord breathed heavily, supporting himself on the rail.

 _So much power! So strong in the Force!_ Vader thought incredulously as he recalled the pounding of Luke's relentless lightsaber moments before. Darth Vader was strong, terrifyingly strong, yet here his son was, defeating him.

Then he realized that the glowing green saber held at his throat was trembling. Luke, eyes wide with an unnamed emotion, lifted a shaking hand from the hilt of the lightsaber and stared at it. His right hand.

The faint cackling in the background grew louder as the Emperor approached.

"Good!" He exclaimed, smiling viciously at Luke. "Kill him! Your hate has made you powerful! Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"

But of course. _He means to have the strongest apprentice possible. Why keep the weaker one?_ Vader thought. It was logical. Yet why did it still feel like betrayal? He had served his master faithfully for years, but now he was ready to throw Vader out for the better man. It was the way of the Sith, but it still hurt. Wasn't the Emperor doing what he had accused the Jedi of doing? Using him?

The Sith Lord turned from his inner confusion to look at his son. It was an easy decision. He had no doubt what choice Luke would make. He waited for burning pain from the lightsaber as Luke looked from him back to the Emperor. Resolve hardened in his eyes, and he straightened. Vader let out a breath and waited for the end.

A clatter broke the stillness as Luke threw his lightsaber away. Vader stared at him in shock.

"Never!" His son said, "Never will I turn to the dark side! You have failed, your Highness. I am a Jedi, as my father before me." Vader felt a burst of…something. Dare he call it pride? No, this was not his son. This was Anakin's son. That was who he used to be, all those years ago, before he embraced his destiny with the dark side. Yet Luke was stronger than Anakin ever was.

Vader was so absorbed in his thoughts that he missed the darkening rage in the Emperor's face, almost missed his next words. They fell like a death toll.

"So be it, Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed." Palpatine raised gnarled, clawed hands toward Luke.

Streaks of blinding white energy shot from his fingertips and consumed Luke's body. He collapsed in a howl of agony. Vader watched, numb, as his son writhed on the floor, the Force lightning tearing through him. Then, lurching to his feet, Vader made his way to his master's side. He stared down at Luke, the son he was so proud of. The perfect son given to him by Padmé…the Sith Lord groaned inwardly at the pain accompanied by the thought of his lost wife. He had not thought of her in so long. Vader had killed her. The Emperor told him. He had turned to the dark side to save her, and instead he lost her. Oh how he had loved her! She was his everything. Vader had forsaken all love after her death, consumed with need to rid himself entirely of Anakin. What had he lost in doing so? What had the dark given him that the light had not?

Padmé's beautiful face flashed before him. Obi Wan's voice echoed in his ear.

"You were my brother, Anakin!" And yet Vader had killed him. Was this all he was? A mindless killing machine, full of hate and anger? What had happened to the man he was, who had loved and been loved? He had traded all he had held dear for this: a life of nothing.

"Ani, I love you…." His mother's voice broke through his mind. Vader could hardly remember her. He could barely recall the times on Tatooine, before Qui Gon had rescued him from slavery. Qui Gon…..he had believed in Anakin, and Obi Wan had loved him. Obi Wan, who had wept as he watched Anakin burn.

"Father….help me!" Luke's rasping voice, filled with agony, jerked Vader from his dark thoughts. He looked at his son, at the torment carving deep lines in Luke's face, and in the far corners of his ice cold heart a single glowing ember began to grow. The part of Anakin that he had tried so hard to kill, the part that he could never quite banish, started to spread. It was love that he could not rid himself of. Looking at his suffering son, Vader recognized that love was the reason he had turned to the dark side, and so the darkness could not consume it.

He fixed his eyes on the Emperor, the treacherous master who had bound him in chains of darkness, who would have tossed him aside despite all the years he had faithfully served him. Vader realized that he didn't want that anymore. He didn't want to live in hate and anger any longer. It had made a shell of him, a hollow man with nothing to live or die for. When Luke had told him that his father was truly dead, it had ripped Vader's heart in two. His son was all he had left, and now Luke was dying at the hands of the one who had lied to him. If this was his destiny, Vader did not want it. And at this climatic moment, the future of the galaxy rested in a single choice by a man everyone had given up on. Except his son.

They always say not to underestimate the dark side. It is powerful, strong and seductive beyond imagination. But they fail to mention that the light is stronger. A single flame can permeate an entire room as the darkness flees its presence. Before the light, it is weak and powerless.

Anakin heaved the Emperor into his arms with a burst of strength, and though the blue tinted energy tore through him, he staggered to the reactor shaft and hurled the Emperor down it.

Pain. Bone searing pain.

Anakin blinked, trying to ignore the agony in his body and listening to the Emperor's screams as he plummeted to certain death. Then Luke was beside him, holding him. Anakin smiled. He had saved his son. The part of him that Vader had always thought of as weakness had been the strength he needed to find himself again, and Anakin knew that for all those years of darkness the light had not deserted him. He had brought balance to the Force, as it had been predicted years ago.

But it had not been destiny that compelled him. It was a conscious decision made by both Anakin and Vader, because destiny had never truly existed. It was all a choice, whether he wanted to be a slave to the dark side forever, or find freedom in the light. In the end, he had chosen right. Now….now he was ready for it to end. He had fulfilled his duty, and it was time to move on and make room for a new generation.

Chaos reigned around them as Luke dragged his father to the shuttle. Nobody really saw them as they raced about in panic. Panting, Luke rested against the shuttle as he laid Anakin on the ramp.

"Luke…" Anakin murmured, wheezing through his damaged respirator. "Luke, help me take this mask off." Luke shook his head, his face strained by lingering pain from the Force lightning.

"You'll die," he protested. Anakin smiled slightly, the movement stretching the scars that decorated his face.

"Nothing can stop that now." Anakin sucked in a breath of precious air. "Let me look on you with my own eyes." Not through the red tinted mask that defined Vader, the mask that made everything appear dark and distorted.

Together, they removed the confining helmet, and Anakin held his breath as he beheld the world in color for the first time in twenty years. He knew what his son was seeing. He saw the hideous features in his mind constantly. But Luke was smiling, his blue eyes lit with emotion that Anakin was afraid to name. Blue eyes….the same as his, although Luke's hair was darker than Anakin's had been.

His eyes tracing the scars on his son's face, Anakin was startled to see tears rolling down Luke's cheek. Jerking his gaze up, he could see the unspoken words in his son's eyes, emotions that Luke couldn't find the words to explain. Love crowded out almost everything else, and Anakin could feel tears gathering in his own eyes.

"Go, my son. Leave me." Luke's brow scrunched up in a stubborn expression that Anakin almost laughed to see. It appeared that Luke took after him in more than looks.

"No. You're coming with me. I'll not leave you here. I've got to save you." Somehow, despite all that Luke had gone through, he still retained the innocence that Vader used to marvel at. Though his voice had weakened, Anakin was determined to tell his son just how much he had done.

"You already have, Luke." If not for Luke, Anakin was sure that he would have never broken free of the chains of darkness, would have never known love again. His son could not save him physically, but he had saved his father's soul, and that was far more important than his fleshly body could ever be. Anakin knew that someday, they would see each other again.

"Father, I won't leave you!" Luke cried desperately. Anakin smiled at the title that he had longed for ever since he had found out that Padmé was pregnant. Lifting a shaking hand, he caressed Luke's cheek before drawing Luke closer to him.

"Luke, you were right…..Tell your sister…..you were right." Anakin could see Obi Wan before him, holding out his hand. He took that hand and stood. But before they vanished into the Force, Anakin turned and looked back at his son kneeling next to the broken body of his former life, and smiled.


End file.
